


Draw me an owl

by miraq94



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:55:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26950060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miraq94/pseuds/miraq94
Summary: Where Akaashi is an artist and Bokuto needs someone to make him a draw.“So… you are Akaashi, the artist” Bokuto didn’t know what else to say, he usually was an easy talker but today his tongue and brain felt like a really dense potatoes pure. Maybe angels were able to enchant people like wizards could.“Yes, I’m Akaashi but not an artist yet, I’m still coursing my last year of college”
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	Draw me an owl

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So this is my first fanfic I write in YEARS but I just love bokuaka SOOOO much I couldn't help it. It was supose to be a 2000 words buuuuuut hahaha.
> 
> WARNING: english is not my fisrt language, not even my second, probably there are not correcto collocations (aggg I hate them haha), sentense that could be rewrited in a nicer way or incorrect meanings. I apologize in advance and I would REALLY appreciate any kind of correction.

It all started with a friend who knew a friend that knew someone that knew someone who had a cousin that knew how to draw. It was that distant from him that he could reach The Galapagos sooner than track down who was part of the “ _I know someone_ ” list. That is the way how the worst kind of stories usually started, the ones where someone (habitually the protagonist) ended up dead, in the hospital missing a part of them body (as a leg or a lung) or going bankrupt. Bokuto wasn’t in need of a gangster nor a broker because he neither needed someone’s murder nor financial advisement. The only thing he wanted, the only little thing Bokuto’s heart desired was a single drawing, as easy as that. He couldn’t understand why he had to risk his lungs for a little decoration in his room, perhaps it would have been better to look up an artist on the internet instead of trusting a cousin’s friend from a friend from a friend.

“Maybe we should check on that boy, he looks suspicious”

Someone from the staff whispered loud enough for Bokuto to hear and he couldn’t agree more, it took all his willpower to not jump yelling “dot it, do it and kick him and his bomb out of our safety” but he hears Kuroo’s voice even louder telling him to behave. He wants to talk back that probably (almost with 100% certainty) the suspicious boy was the gangster broker that he was meeting with today and that is the reason of why he got twenty minutes earlier than the meeting hour to the café, wearing a cap, sunglasses and a scarf (even if he was dying from sweat under it cause it’s the end of summer and the scarf is made of wool) and hiding crouched down next to the sugar, jam and napkins trolley, just to make sure he sees the boy before he spots him and has the time to run in case of a death eater appearance.

“I’m talking to him, back me up”

YES, PLEASE. Even though he hasn’t been able to spot the threaten boy, maybe he should back up the staff person too, in the end is his fault that the suspect was in there. The next he knows is feeling a hand on his shoulder that makes him jump almost throwing the whole trolley to the floor, luckily almost. A girl with a face that reminds him of sugar, candies, clouds and spring was looking at him with her hands on the hips and eyebrows lifted. She is probably thirty centimetres shorter than him but right now, sprawled on the floor, she looked like a skyscraper tall.

“I would have to ask you to leave if you’re here stalking somebody”

_Stalking somebody?_

“Eh? What? NO! NO, NO, NO” Suddenly it sank into him that, that suspicious person they were talking about is him, _him_ , Bokuto, the nicest and most amazing person on earth (maybe, and just maybe, only Japan, the Earth is that big that he doesn’t even know all the countries names). “I’m not a Stalker. I’M NOT A GANGSTER”

“A gangster? Are you a gangster? Kohei, take some knifes and call the police, this one here is trouble”

“No! I said I am NOT a gangster, there is no need for knifes. I’m a costumer, a regular and ordinary costumer, just that.

“An ordinary costumer would sit at a table an order, and what about the undercover costume?

Bokuto just wanted to run away from that situation and star all over again, maybe ask Iwaizumi to be his back up man in the shadows, yes, that would be cool, Iwa had big muscles and that scary wring that would scare Voldemort, Saruman and Palpatin, away.

“I’m famous, I need all this stuff in order to drink a single cup of tea without all the fan attention” Yes, _that_ was a good answer, Kuroo will have to shut up his mouth about saying he couldn’t think fast.

“A celebrity? Who?” The girl raised an eyebrow daring him, it was more than obvious that she didn’t believe Bokuto.

“Mmmmmm, Beyoncé” He answered in a whisper but clearly loud enough to be hear since the waiter behind burst into a laugh. Maybe fast thinking wasn’t his thing after all.

“Okay, Kohei forget about the police, call the FBI or the Interpol, he is probably a terrorist”

Then the girl took a spoon from the trolley, a tea one, and pointed at his chest with an expression in her face between fear, amusement and bravery, as if a seven centimetres tea spoon could prevent a terrorist from exploiting the place. He wasn’t the only one with fast thinking problems. At this point, Bokuto just wanted a terrorist to be really there and put an end to this nonsense situation. Then he did the only thing that could be done to salvage the day, he send flying all his undercover items, revelling his face.

“See, I’m just a normal person, not a hair of terrorist, not even an eyelash”

“All I see is a boy with extravagant hair style that could be saying this to trick us. Never trust people that says they are the good ones”

 _HELP_ , someone help him. Plus, he couldn’t see where the sunglasses had landed and those costed him twenty five thousand yens, eighteen stores visited and six doughnuts to compensate Kuroo for accompanying him. So, yeah, _SOMEONE HELP HIM_.

“Bokuto-san?”

“Oya?”

“What? Do you know this guy?

Bokuto wanted to let himself drop on his knees and yell his gratitude to the sky that heard his cries and had send the most beautiful angel to his rescue. Not in his twenty two years of living his eyes had stared on such a wonderful, graceful, dazzling and elegant creature (he really needed to learn more words because those weren’t enough). In front of him a boy with hair of the colour of the night was looking at him with… frown eyebrows?

“Are you Bokuto-san?”

“Yes?”

“Are you asking me?” The frowned intensified.

“Maybe he really is a celebrity? Should we ask for a photo to hang it up on the wall?”

“Yes, I’m Bokuto” That time he said it with all the sureness he possessed in him, taking in account that his legs were pudding. “Are you an angel?”

“No, I’m Akaashi, we had a meeting today.

“Oh, he is not a stalker then, he is on a date, probably a tinder one”

That guy, that angel couldn’t be the artist, how was he supposed to spend a whole afternoon and be able to think straight and talk with sense and drink without spinning it on him. However, it kind of made sense, being the boy a piece of art himself, he should be put on a museum so everybody had the chance to contemplate him. Perhaps he should forget about the original drawing idea and ask for a portrait, the angel’s portrait.

“Bokuto-san, are you okay? Is there something wrong?” He was looking at the personal staff at that last question.

“YEAH, yeah, everything is cool. We can sit down at any table you like, just pick and then we can talk” Or kiss, he would have rather said. Kiss those lips and see if they were made of ambrosia and made him feel drunk.

On the way to the table, the one with two cactus next to the window, one of the waitress whispered “be careful, he is a terrorist suspect, just look at the hair”.

“I’M NOT A TERRORIST, I SAID” Bokuto yelled, they were going to scare Akaashi, and besides, what did they have with his hairstyle, he spend years perfecting it, he reduced the time it took him to do it from nearly fifty minutes to only fifteen.

Luckily, Akaashi didn’t comment nor ask anything about the terrorist matter. An angel no doubt.

“So… you are Akaashi, the artist” Bokuto didn’t know what else to say, he usually was an easy talker but today his tongue and brain felt like a _really_ dense potatoes pure. Maybe angels were able to enchant people like wizards could.

“Yes, I’m Akaashi but not an artist yet, I’m still coursing my last year of college”

Without saying anything else, not specifying his major or asking Bokuto what he does, he rummaged through a leather bag and extracted a light brown simple notebook and the shortest used pencil. Bokuto didn’t take his eyes from his movements the whole time, imagining how would it feel like to have those long fingers that touched in such a delicate way mundane objects, running through his hair.

“You can explain me your request now”

“Ah?” Did… did Akaashi read his mind and knew what he was thinking, did Akaashi actually want for Bokuto to formulate his wish and comb his hair with his fingers?

“Your drawing request, Bokuto-san” _Of course_.

“Oh, yes, yes, the drawing, of course, the drawing, of course, of course” Of course he was talking about that and of course Bokuto was embarrassing himself.

“Is there a problem? Are you feeling okay? You seem a little red, if is too hot next to the window with the sun we can move to another table, I only chose this because the light is better.

“NO, DON’T WORRY” Just two breathers took him from jumping. “Everything is perfect, this spot is perfect, you are perfect, all is perfect. The red is from the drink, no need to worry about it” Akaashi looks at him but has the decency to not comment that Bokuto is drinking a cold lemonade not hot chocolate. “Well, about the request I’d like an owl drawing to hang on my wall”

One day he woke up on the flat that he shared with Kuroo and spend almost one hour looking at his plain, insipid and boring white wall while he was still lying on bed. He decided that something was missing there, something to break the shining white and bring him joy every time he looked at it. He couldn’t come with a better idea than an owl.

“An owl, okay” He writes it on his notebook and then takes another thing from his bag” This is my portfolio, you can go through it and see which style fits better with the idea you have”

“Now?”

“I have time but if you are in a rush there is no problem with taking it”

“Now it’s more than okay”

Bokuto took the portfolio whose cover page has a night sky painted with a hundred stars and some planets, it would be totally amazing to have that on his ceiling, maybe for another time. He struggles to not drop his jaw, because probably it wouldn’t stop on the table and would end up breaking the floor and then he goes through different kind of drawings. There is one of three purple jellyfish that seem to be swimming around the cells of the paper, another of two boys kissing with their feet inside a swimming pool all in black and with and the shadows in between, an alien surrounded by hundreds of different candies, cakes, cookies, cupcakes and more painted in bright and vibrant colours, also another with a cat jumping with no background, just the animal in movement coloured in different tones of orange and, by the end of the portfolio, were some sheets of paper with drawings made only by a few lines.

“I don’t even know the first thing about art but Akaashi, this is just… is just… INCREDIBLE, you are a genius, you are amazing, like that famous painter, the one with the weird moustache”

“Actually, I’m nothing like Salvador Dalí” Akaashi hoped the flush he feels burning inside of him didn’t show on his face. “My style is realistic, even if I try to draw in a more surrealism way it just ends up looking realistic, or a hybrid. I relate myself more with İbrahim Balaban”

“I don’t know who is him but I’m one hundred and twenty percent sure that you are far better than this Balaban guy” He said it with such certainty that it’s almost impossible to not drop into his words.

“That is most cert…”

“And what about these” Bokuto points at the lines drawings. “They are so different from the others”

“These here were thought to be tattoos, some people prefer simple and net lines that don’t look heavy on the skin, but if you like them we can use this style”

“You do tattoos?”

“I work in a tattoo shop, yes” Akaashi doesn’t give much explanation than those few words and Bokuto is about to bombard him with a thousand more questions. “Talk to me about your drawing” Perhaps for another day, then.

“I liked the jumping cat one, I really want something like that”

Akaashi nods and takes note of that, his face is pure concentration and Bokuto wondered if it was the same when he is making a tattoo, if he bites his tongue in that not-meant-no-be-but-is-it sexy way.

“How would you want the position to be? Showing the profile?

“I don’t mind/care, I just want a pretty owl so you can draw it however you think is best. If your hand is the one tracing the lines it will come out amazingly no matter what”

Akaashi took a sip from his lemonade, hoping the cold would travel through his veins preventing any flush and then he realised he didn’t ask to not put a straw in the glass, the extinction of the turtles was going to be his fault.

“So, I have free will on this, mmm” He liked it and he didn’t like it at all, it wouldn’t be the first time someone ask him to redo it again and again and again and again because that wasn’t what they requested but they didn’t actually request anything specific. “I would have to know some details, anyway” Bokuto nodded fervently. “You mentioned it’s for your wall, is it going to be painted directly there or in a frame?

“Can it… Can it be done on the wall?” Bokuto’s eyes lights up as a kid ones on Halloween’s eve opening his candies bag.

There are a few more questions, the size, the colours, the materials… but it all ends up with Bokuto dragging Akaashi to his place because he didn’t have any answer to give (or so he says, it’s not at all an excuse to have that beautiful artist between the walls that watch him fall sleep every day). Akaashi agrees reluctantly, not quite sure is necessary, not quite wanting to decline neither. The flat was not far from the café, not more than fifteen minutes’ walk and Bokuto pointed every shop he has bought something, there is where I buy the fruit but not the apples, never the apples because they taste like paper, there is where I get the medicine, expect the one for the haemorrhoids I had early this year because he got embarrassed and, later, mocked by Kuroo, and in that bank I got a kiss and also a slap, _and, and, and_ …). He was bringing a potential criminal to his home, what if Akaashi murdered him while he was back to him using his owl cushion and then cooked a soup with his bones and a roast ~~beef~~ human with the flesh. _What if_.

It took Bokuto three attempts to open the door and at the end is not even him who does it, is Kuroo that got tired of hearing the keys fighting to enter in the lock.

“Bokuto, Akaashi” He looks at the first with a raised eyebrow, ready to make a mockery.

“Kuroo-san” Akaashi bows his head and follows Bokuto inside.

“Kuroo, I brought the artist home! it was be…” He stops talking halfway taking his sneakers. “Wait, you know each other? You know Akaashi?”

“Of course I know Akaashi, I was the one to give you his contact, remember?”

Bokuto made a groan that more than anything seemed like a wounded animal asking for help. Kuroo had known this angel and didn’t warn him how handsome he was? That was a betrayal to the bro’s code, definitely, besides he evilly lied to him.

“You told me that you knew a friend that knew someone that knew someone who had a cousin that knew how to draw”

Akaashi tried to make the connections in his head, which involved a lot of people, it was doubtfully accurate.

“Ah, _what_? I told you that _I_ _knew_ someone from Kenma’s classes who draws incredibly good”

Bokuto was at one breath from yelling why his bother from another mother knew a person as marvellous and never introduced them. Kuroo looked him into the eyes, Bokuto looked back not breaking the contact for seconds, arguing in silence that Akaashi broke with a cough.

“Do you want a brownie? Fresh from the oven” Kuroo show them a tray with not even a hole in the content inside. That would explain the sweet smell that overruns the flat, a total shame, Akaashi was already making a note to ask for their air freshener.

“No, thank you” Last time he ate brownies he spend one hour balancing sitting on the flour like a creeping doll while laughing, the memory wouldn’t be that hard to pass hadn’t it happened five days ago.

“They are vegan and gluten free, no need to worry about diets or allergies. Still no? Okay, Bokuto a piece?”

“Are they still allowed to be called brownies? Plus, what about nuts allergies? They are quite comun.

“Can we go back to the drawing?”

Akaashi felt in his guts if those two were tangled into a (stupid) discussion there would be no end and he would never meet the sun again. Bokuto’s face turned into a cherry, it was kind of cute the image, Kuroo on the other hand, had filled his mouth with vegan brownie and was giving him a glare that seemed to say “I catch you cheating”.

Akaashi had great imagination, it came with the profession, he always pictured every scenery in his head before it happened. It wasn’t any different with Bokuto’s room, but the neat, clean and tidy place was nothing of the chaos he anticipated. No used socks piles on the floor, no not made bed, no opened wardrobe with unfolded clothes, no shelfs covered with dust. Instead, two wide windows, a desk against them (he would have to check on the light to see how it would affect the painting) and, effectively, a blank wall in front of the largest bed ever.

“I love my bed, is so so big I can lay on horizontally and it doesn’t make a different” He showed it by throwing himself on it. “Do you want to lay with me?”

Akaashi declined the offer no without wondering how warm would it be to rest his head on Bokuto’s firm chest. Bokuto just wanted to run fast enough to make time go backwards realising what he had asked and the cold rejection. He stood up, better to stay far from the bed, his owl cushion making him eyes to hug him tight and weep until dehydration.

“I want it as big as it can be” Bokuto stood up and took a metro from one of the desk drawers. “It will be the last thing I see before falling asleep”

“Yes, the boy doesn’t have a boyfriend”

If glazes could strangle, Kuroo would be deep blue.

****

He had lots of ideas, they were in his head hunting him, preventing him from sleeping. He knew too well that he wasn’t to get any rest until vomiting every lines his brain was full of. That’s the reason why he was at two in the morning walking down the isle of a hospital, because at the expense of sounding crazy that place was the pacifier for his inner artist. The first time he set foot on that room was three years ago, he went to visit his very first art teacher that had a car accident, the big difference is that, that time, he was surrounded by tubes and machines that helped him breathe, eat and do the vital necessities. The image was grim, macabre and dismal but at the same time, in between the sorrow, a kind of peace bloomed from it. He had to go back the next day at ungodly late hours with the fervent craving to portray that image. The rawest necessity was born that day inside him, the nocturnal views from the windows whose lights turned around the room into a dance of colours, altogether with the lull of someone not dead and yet not alive, made him vomit his best artworks. Not a single soul knew, not the artist family, not even his own parents, and for the hospital staff he was a nephew, the world would only think he was another lunatic artist, though he was certain his teacher would cherish that he squeezed what made him go wild.

He placed his phone on the bed, leaning against the hip of the man as a support because he was creepy as that, the screen showing a horned owl, he sat on a chair, giving his back to the neon pink coming from the window.

And then he started drawing.

Sorting all the ideas was the most complicated task, should he go for something literal as an owl on a branch or perhaps make two of them cuddling, Bokuto seemed the kind of person who liked cute, or maybe a baby one surrounded by firefights, trying to catch some of them.

Many hours later he closed the sketchbook accompanied by a satisfied sigh. His blood boiled to show it to Bokuto and find out if his irises could bright even more. 

He collided with a rock after closing the room door, luckily said rock had hands and prevented him from splashing onto the floor.

“My apologies! A... Akaashi?” The rock wasn’t a real rock, unless rocks could turn red. “Is it you, Akaashi?

“Yes, Bokuto-san, it’s me”

Bokuto’s eyes went wider like he couldn’t believe the real Akaashi was actually there, in front of him, still trapped in his hold. He has been dreaming about him since the day they met, there was still the possibility of that being a product of his funny sleeping brain.

“What are you doing here?” What he really wanted to ask was what was he doing in there _at that hours_.

“Mmmmmm, visiting”

He didn’t give more because that was a lie and Bokuto was wearing a medical gown, meaning that he worked there and most certainly knew the kind of patients that hosted that isle.

“Cool, well, not cool at all, visiting people at a hospital is never cool, well, unless is a new-born, then it’s super cool” His ears were turning into various shades of pink, the more he babbled the darker they turned. “I’m here because I’m a nurse and I had a night shift. I’m definitely not spying on you or anything weird, definitely.

Akaashi thought about teasing him a bit, but was too tired for that.

“Actually, Bokuto-san, is good we ran into each other, I needed to see you”

He could have told him he just won the lottery and had the same reaction, round, open and sparkling eyes.

“Re… re… REALLY?”

“I have finished the drawing, I would like to discuss it with you whenever it’s possible”

Bokuto had so many expressions he could fill a portfolio only with them.

“My shift is over, if you wait for me to change clothes we can have breakfast, there is this café around the corner that has _the best_ fluffy pancakes of Japan”

It was still dark but, if paid the right attention, little light rays breaking into the negritude and the light pollution could be seen. When Bokuto came out of the door he was wearing a smile as if the sunrise was being born out of him that day. Akaashi had never been good with surrealism but that image was making his fingers tickling wanted to try.

“It’s a shame all this light pollution, it blocks the shine of the stars” Akaashi moves his glaze from Bokuto to the sky, where not even a little shiny star could be seen. He doesn’t know what to answer to Bokuto, thought, _shame on the civilization_ , perhaps? “When I was ten the school took us camping in the mountains, at night we sat all by the campfire under the firmament and, I swear Akaashi, I felt infinite, but here, I just feel like I’m in my room.

Shame on the civilization didn’t feel appropriate, neither did “I hadn’t thought you could be so deep, Bokuto-san”.

“Weren’t we going for pancakes, Bokuto-san?”

“Ah, yeah, yeah, sorry. This way” They started walking, so near that their hands brush between step and step giving birth to some of the stars the sky is missing. “Do you think owls have problems sleeping with this much light?”

“I don’t know if there are owls inhabiting the city”

This time, when they get into the café, nobody thinks about calling the police or about ending up kidnaped and dead. Akaashi doesn’t wait much, as soon as the waiter takes their order, places the sketchbook on the table.

“If there is anything you don’t like I can change it”

The drawing consisted in a single horned owl with a spread wing, looking straight facing whoever would look and three feathers delicacy falling above it. Painted in different shades of brown and white and golden eyes that matched perfectly with the pair that were beaming in front of him. It kind of had an ethereal aura, like it came from the land of the Gods.

“I LOVE IT, IT’S PERFECT, AKAASHI, I LOVE IT SO MUCH”

“Bokuto-san, please don’t yell” Various pairs of eyes were fixed on them, even though, that reaction warmed his heart.

“Ah, sorry, but this is perfect, it should be hanged in a museum. It feels like a waste to have it only in my room, I promise I will invite lots of people so everybody can have the privilege. I knew from the moment I saw you that you will be _the_ artist”

“You thought I was a murderer”

“No, that was _before_ seeing you, after I just knew, my guts and your pretty face told me”

The traces of the owl were so realistic that it seemed to be alive.

“The colours will look more intense on the wall, I should have painted it with markers to make it more alike, but I only brought pencils” Akaashi points at his bag with the jaw.

Bokuto looks at him frowning, for a moment Akaashi wanted to extend his arm and smooth it out with his spoon.

“You mean that you went to the hospital to draw?”

“Yes” Akaashi answered honestly and didn’t show not a hint of shame. Bokuto wanted to ask a hundred of questions, like _why, since when, what the hell, what the actual hell, why on earth, was it bad omens to have a drawing in his room that was inspired from an almost dead person?_ , but all he managed to say was “Spooky”

“Not really, the atmosphere is quite calm and inspires me” Took a bite of the pancakes covered in chocolate, they really were fluffy, almost made him want to rest his head in them and fall asleep. “He is my old art teacher, he would understand and support the idea and besides it’s not like the family cares, the only reason he is still connected is because his inheritance won’t go to the museums stablished in the will and they can still spend it”

A piece of pancake flops from Bokuto’s mouth, he is both shocked for what he has just heard and ashamed for embarrassing himself in front of Akaashi.

“When would it be okay to start doing it?”

“Disconnect him? Well, I don’t know, I’m a nurse not a doctor and I don’t even know the patient, there wi…”

“I meant the drawing”

Would it be okay if he started running away and never having to face Akaashi again?

“Not now, I just worked twenty four hours straight and I feel like hibernating, plus I need to tidy my room first, there might be socks on the floor”

Akaashi wanted to say that he didn’t mean _right now_ but all he managed was laughing because Bokuto was somehow weirdly adorable. Bokuto, on the other hand, wanted to ask if Akaashi could draw that laugh instead of the owl and have it on his wall forever, and when the landlord kicked him out he would take the piece of structure with him. He shove a whole pancake in his mouth to prevent making an embarrassing comment but ended up choking with that much food and embarrassing himself anyway. In the end it didn’t matter because Akaashi laughed harder and he could choked on that sound happily.

***

“Kuroo, which one should I wear?”

He couldn’t decide between the classic white or the blue one, because maybe Akaashi was not even into the shirt style and more into the sporty one, but artist where known for being cool.

“You want to wear your most good looking and expensive shirt to paint a wall?”

“Ah, you are right! Lend me one of yours then!”

“I’m not going to lend you any shirt, use an old t-shirt, maybe the one with the owl pun to match the moment”

“But Kuroo, I want to look SO good and impress Akaashi I cannot wear just anything, it has to be a shirt but not mine, those can’t be ruined, so you need to lend me one. Beside, my owl puns t-shirts are to show and brag, absolutely not to mess with paint”

When Akaashi knocked the door, Bokuto opened shirtless.

“Akaashi!! Come in, come in” He pushed him from the shoulders to make him enter and grabbed all the material that was transporting” I will take this. Come on, let’s go to my room, I already covered the bed and the floor with plastic”

“Kuroo-san” Akaashi bowed his head as a salute as he passed him and received a smirk back. “Bokuto-san, is there a reason for what you are half naked?”

Would have been perfect if Akaashi had said it the other way round, why was he half dressed, why not totally naked.

“Well… I’m not in possession of any t-shirt I don’t like enough to not care about messing it with the painting, so I decided to just not use any” He smiled proud of himself, that was a good reasoning and also it allowed him to show off his build muscles.

“There is no need to concern about that, I will be doing all the painting, you don’t even need to be in the room”

“Oh…”

Somehow, out of Akaashi’s knowledge of how the world works, Bokuto’s hair lost height as well as his eyes and lips. An image that didn’t suit him at all.

“Now that I think better about it, it would be great if you could grab me the tools and check if everything it’s going as your request”

And just with that sentence the hair was all spike up again.

“I CAN TOTALLY DO THAT, AKAASHI, YOU’LL SEE I’M THE BEST ASSISTANT OF THE WORLD”

In the end there wasn’t so much for Bokuto to do but watch, so instead of being the assistant he took the supervisor role. He sat on the bed and staring at Akaashi, at his butt, at the movement of his arms, at his butt, at the way the pencil gently traced the wall, at his butt, at how his face was covered in concentration, at his butt.

“This is giving me ASMR”

Akaashi gave him a smile as an answer, he didn’t like talking while working, concentration was key in perfection. Once done and satisfied with the result he turned to ask Bokuto’s opinion to find him asleep, laying on his side and the legs hanging out of the end of the bed. He debated between waking him up or draw him.

“Bokuto-san, Bokuto-san” He squeezed his shoulder softly.

When Bokuto opened the eyes he didn’t know if he was at his room or if he just woke up in a model agency, luckily his mouth was too dry to say something stupid.

“Ah, gosh Akaashi, I’m so sorry, I fell asleep, your hands movements felt like a lull and I couldn’t help it”

“It’s okay, I just need you to check the drawing before I make it permanent”

The drawing was an exact copy from the paper one, only in a much bigger size. Bokuto wanted it to be finished and spend his nights contemplating it instead of sleeping, what a waste of time. His eyes answered for him, accompanied by a hectic nodment. This time he fought against the lull, so he fixed his eyes on how Akaashi’s back contracted with every movement, how his bare arms danced around the wall.

“Hey, Akaashi, you mention that you work in a tattoo shop but, don’t you like tattoos?” Akaashi turned his head with an expression of no understanding. “You don’t have any”

“The arms are not the only zone of the body that can be tattooed, Bokuto-san, there are other more _hidden_ places”

“Oh… _oh_ ”

“Do you want to see them?”

Bokuto nodded not wanting to break the tension that was taking over the ambient, felt his tongue dried when Akaashi grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and started pulling it over, he fisted his hands to prevent himself from helping him. Akaashi left carefully the t-shirt atop of the stool he was using to draw and turned to face Bokuto, who gasp and then couldn’t breathe anymore. Under the right pectoral, bathing the ribs, there was a rufous-legged owl eyes closed hanging upside down from a branch.

“You have an owl” He whispered as if it was a secret that only the both shared and not even the wind could hear, and somehow it really was a shared thing, two owls flying through the sky and finding each other between the stars. “Can I touch it?” _Can I touch **you**_.

Akaashi took his hand and slowly guided it until Bokuto’s fingers were on his skin, he let him free will but never abandoned the hold. Bokuto toured the tattoo with his fingertips in a slow pace as if Akaashi was made of smoke and the rush would make him scatter, desiring to never stop.

“So beautiful, so beautiful”

Being speechless was an unusual and an usual thing in him, he barely ever knew what to say but said something nonetheless, this time was different, he wanted to verbalize a hundred words but couldn’t reach them. The electricity Akaashi’s body gas giving off was travelling through his fingertips across the cells till electrocute his brain.

He had a dried tongue, fried braid and melted body.

He was an unfinished drawing.

He was a Picasso’s piece, with a foot per ear and a heart per penis.

“I’ve got more”

He made Bokuto’s hand travel around his abdomen, feeling fire in the traces of caress, and there, a little above the hem of his pants, started the next. Little dots connected in a line that got lost under the clothes, he let the other’s hand in his upper abdomen to unzip his pants and lower them a bit along his underwear. His heart beat fast as blood was rushing to that zone, suddenly only feeling the part of his body that was being touched.

Bokuto felt every time he expired was throwing out steam instead of air, as a warm up dragon would do. He touched the bare skin, not parting the eyes from there as it glaring directly at Akaashi’s eyes would feel like a confession. Tracing every one of the dots following the line, he realised that they wasn’t dots but really tiny stars.

“Is it a constellation?”

“Yes. Scorpius, my brother’s zodiac sign”

Bokuto nodded, of course an angel would have stars in his body.

“I wish I could fall asleep at the sight of the stars” _I wish I could fall asleep at the sight of **this** constellation, with my head on your thigh and your hand in my hair_. “Mine is Virgo, what is yours?” Opening his mouth to talk was a way to swim to the surface for air but he couldn’t reach it.

“Sagittarius”

And then Virgo and Sagittarius collapsed together hitting the ground and creating the chaos as their lips met, their tongues entangled and their saliva became the same, Akaashi camouflaging his fingers from the world into Bokuto’s hair, and Bokuto never leaving the touched of the tattoo. In the end the oxygenated surface were lips but without words, he did had to open his mouth but not to talk.

“That was…”

“Yeah”

Akaashi pulled him for another one, this time more delicate and less passionate, a bit more first kiss than the real first, tender and sweet and with a few smiles in between.

“Your kisses are art” And “I’m seeing the stars” And “I think I died, Am I dead?”

That night when Bokuto falls asleep he does it to the most incredible owl drawing anyone has ever created, with a warm feeling ins his lips, his fingertips, his chest, his lungs and somewhere under his stomach, near where he had been touching Akaashi’s tattoo, and with a promise to discover the rest of them.

****

His co-workers always advise him to not get attached, to not put names to faces an just think about them as expedients, and probably they were right, but still, how could he alienate a body from a person, how could he when he spend hours and days and weeks and, sometimes months, taking care of them. That is why he finds himself time to time sitting on a bench outside in front of the hospital.

“Bokuto-san?”

He heard that voice that was like medicine for his wounded heart and part of him doubted if his sadness was playing him but when he looked up there he was, the image that declared he still was sane. The other part of him felt bad for enjoying it at that moment of sorrow.

“Akaashi, you came here to draw?”

He took a sit next to Bokuto, knees touching.

“No, I came to farewell, my teacher have suddenly passed away, somehow I felt that here is where I needed to say my goodbyes even if I haven’t been allowed to see the body” Bokuto looked at him with big watery eyes. “Is something wrong, Bokuto-san?”

And, all of sudden again because it seemed that today was the day, Bokuto hugged him as tight as life allowed it and then Akaashi’s neck became a jungle, warm, humid and rainy. He remained silent as Bokuto was letting go little sobs while softly he rubbed his back.

“I’m sorry” He managed to say after the cried had ceased, it took all his willing power to abandon the safety of Akaashi’s embrace.

“It’s okay, do you want to talk about it?”

He wished to not feel that bad because Akaashi was smiling at him and that was really rare but his mood wasn’t allowing him to enjoy and admire it as it should. However, Akaashi wouldn’t be smiling if it wasn’t for his mopes so he couldn’t quite complain about them.

“Sometimes I just wish I had a job where death wasn’t implied” Akaashi nodded, understanding, he always seemed to understand even when Bokuto was a ramble of thoughts. “For example in an astronomy tower, so every time I felt bad I would be looking at the stars, something I can’t even do here”

He followed Bokuto’s gaze to the already dark sky, although never dark enough.

“Bokuto-san, I believe great part of their work is done in an office at daylight”

“Oh…”

“But I see stars when I look into your eyes, perhaps you should simply look at yourself in the mirror”

“ _Oh…_ ”

Next time Kuroo offers him brownies he says yes, this time they aren’t gluten free and also contain a special ingredient. They taste heavenly good.

“Let me go all over again to see if I understood, you’ve come here at ten pm with two bags full of painting material, a ladder (I’m not asking how did you managed to transport it) to paint Bokuto’s ceiling as a surprise while he is at work moping. Did I get it right?”

“Pretty much, yes”

“And this is about to get high and I don’t mean the ladder”

Akaashi chuckled, maybe it hadn’t been the brightest idea to ate those brownies when he was about to spend the whole night on a ladder.

“Hell, count me in”

“It’s not really necessary. Can you draw?”

“No, but I can stabilize the ladder and I know a bunch of _really_ good jokes, so yes, I can make myself useful. Bokuto has a night shift, we have until the break of dawn. God, I’ve always wanted to say something like that, I feel like Gandalf”

He had to laugh at that because he was just that freak.

In the end, Akaashi doesn’t know what was good, if the jokes or the weed, maybe both of them combined. What he did know is that Kuroo wasn’t good at stabilizing ladders but he indeed was it as a mattress. Lucky for both they didn’t land on anything sharp.

“Akaashi, why are you doing this?”

Akaashi stopped for a second to look at Kuroo and then went back to paint, wasn’t it obvious?

“Because I think Bokuto deserves the stars”

Kuroo nodded as if that was explanation enough and no more words were needed, after all, Bokuto was the son of light.

A few hours and laughs later they were done, both with the painting and life.

“Painters should be better regarded, this was exhausting”

Akaashi would have liked to point out that he was the one who did all the job while Kuroo stood there singing the Trolls BSO, but he was too tired of painting, laughing and falling that couldn’t sum up the energy.

“Perhaps we could lay down for just a tiny bit, this bed is so big and comfy and warm” Akaashi started rubbing his face against the comforter, so soft he wanted to melt with it.

“That would be a brilliant idea” Kuroo took place next to the other man, both hands under his face. “Although I’m not sure Bokuto would be happy about you using this bed for the very first time with me, he loves being the first”

“We will be up before he comes. What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over”

The break of dawn came and went and so did Bokuto, who stepped into his room with red eyes from crying to find an angel drooling in his bed with his roommate’s arm scattered on the his stomach. Bokuto didn’t know if to get jealous, feel bewildered or lay on the middle and fall asleep. After some minutes debating what was going on he was able to look passed that image and realize that the bed wasn’t in its usual spot, that there were pieces of dirty plastic on the floor and a ladder, did they own a ladder?

“Kuroo, Kuroo” softly shacked his shoulder but received a hit in the face for an answered. “I shouldn’t have been this gentle”

He didn’t want to wake Akaashi, the image of him almost made his heart do a somersault out of the chest to never return again. Peaceful, handsome and… open eyes?

“Bokuto-san?” Akaashi rubbed his eyes with his hand, feeling a little bit dizzy, was he still high? His head was spinning so probably yes. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I live here, I _sleep_ here” Bokuto looked at him with a halfway mockery, he didn’t understand what was happening.

“No, I mean…” He tried to wet his tongue with saliva, it felt like cardboard, then he tried to held his head with the hand but it was too heavy and it went straight to the mattress making Bokuto laugh. “You shouldn’t have come until after the break of dawn” His tone sounded childish.

“The break of dawn?” Bokuto raised an eyebrow, Akaashi was so pretty talking like that that was going to be the end of him. “It’s been two hours since the sunrise, see”

Bokuto pointed the windows, the sun was filtering through them swelling the room with light, and then Akaashi moved his glaze to Bokuto’s eyes.

“It might have been you, with your sunny eyes, who brought the sunrise here, bad, you shouldn’t have done it, we were supposed to surprise you”

Bokuto left out a light laugh, it was the first time he was seeing Akaashi acting this loose and it was adorable, the most adorable thing he had ever witnessed.

“By any chance, have you eaten Kuroo’s special brownies?”

Akaashi giggled and he couldn’t help it any more, he let himself fell on the bed laying next to Akaashi and then cupped his face into his hands to place a soft kiss on his forehead that made him giggle again.

“They did had a special ingredient, but It’s top secret so I can’t tell and we must be ready before the break of dawn to surprise you”

“A top secret ingredient, ah, I wonder what could that be”

A camouflaged laugh with breathing came out of his throat. He had just had an awful day, probably the fortuitous encounter with Akaashi being the only good thing, and was more than ready to get home and mope till falling asleep, but maybe now he didn’t feel like moping anymore. After a few more minutes of staring at Akaashi he moved to lay on his back and then it was when he saw it, a galaxy on his celling, hundreds of starts in different shades of yellow, pink and blue connected between them, creating constellations. He gasped as an astronaut that has lost his helmet.

“Aka… Akaashi” The name was said as a breath. “What is that?”

That wasn’t the correct question, however, as always Akaashi understood him, even high he got that what he was really asking was _what did I do to deserve this_.

“Now no light pollution will be powerful enough to stop you from falling asleep at the sight of the stars. They bright when dark” Akaashi kissed him on the lips, soft, gentle, just a mare press and remained in there. Bokuto wasn’t able to formulate two single words, maybe Akaashi was indeed a terrorist that had just stole his breath, his soul and his willing. Akaashi lifted his hand and brushed of his eyelids with the heart finger. “And the sun split itself into two and decided to become eyes instead of stars” If he died he wanted to reincarnate in this moment over and over and over again.

Akaashi wondered, was it the brownies or was it Bokuto?

“I deeply wish you weren’t high and Kuroo wasn’t here because otherwise, I would make us travel to the space”

“Well, too bad we are, now shut up, loverboy, and let us sleep, will ya” Kuroo turned to face the wall after giving him _the_ look.

Who needed to study astronomy when he had the whole galaxy sleeping on his left arm. He gave Akaashi a skimo kiss, there, breathing the same air.

“Later” Akaashi spoke without opening his eyes but snuggling even tighter. “You can make us jump into a rocket and take off to the space”

“Is it a promise?”

“It’s a promise”

**BONUS**

He was there, in a place called heaven but without the dead part, laying on bed, tracing Akaashi’s constellation with his tongue, one hand on his hipbone and the other on the tight. Akaashi, whilst, run his fingers through his hair, staying a bit longer in some parts of the head massaging it.

“I like it better when you don’t put gel on, your hair is so soft this way. I love it”

He moved upper and started tracing now the owl tattoo, first with the tongue, then changed to the fingers so he was able to snag the face to Akaashi’s.

“And I love you” Sloppy kiss on the neck. “Tatoo me, ‘Kaashi”

“Mmmmm?” He wasn’t quite aware of his surroundings as he felt intoxicated with the kisses.

“The owl, I want mine on the same spot as yours”

Akaashi put Bokuto over and rolled to be on top of him then licked the zone under the pectoral, where he had his tattoo.

“Very well, I will tattoo you”

“Owlsome! Yowl are the best, I lowl you”

Akaashi debated between kissing him or committing suicide.

**Author's Note:**

> If you've come this far let me give you a BIG thanks, I hope you enjoy it!!


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